Sick, Sick, Sick

Album: Killing Time (2011)
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Songfacts®:

  • Bayside's Anthony Raneri describes "Sick, Sick, Sick" as one of the most personal and darkest songs he's ever written. The song draws its inspiration from the divorce he went through before starting the album that it appears on, Killing Time. Raneri explains that the song is an unfiltered portrait of what was going through his head at the time, because he writes his lyrics from the heart. He does not think of himself as a very clever songwriter, so instead tries to be as direct and impactful as possible.
  • This was a very stubborn song to write. In our interview with Anthony Raneri, he explained: "I rewrote the chorus 100 times because we knew that was going to be the single on that record before it was even done. We thought the verse was there, we thought the pre-chorus was there, we really thought the whole vibe of the song was there and we felt we really had something with it. As far as commercially, it's our most successful song, got the most radio play and stuff, so we knew we were kind of onto something.

    That made it hard to finalize, though. Because when you know you've got something good, you don't want to f--k it up. So that was a tough one. I think there's about five different versions of that song with five different choruses that were recorded, all using different demos and stuff like that."
  • The album, Killing Time, benefits from an extended writing session compared to the band's previous releases. For other albums, the band would generally write, record, and finalize each song over a matter of days or weeks. Often, the songs would be written while on tour. This album, however, was written over the course of a year, no touring involved. The band says they are most proud of this album. For more on their writing process, see our interview with their guitarist Jack O'Shea.
  • Queens of the Stone Age released a song with the same title in 2007, but Raneri wasn't aware of it at the time.

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